Pashinyan Party MP Says Armenia Should Avoid Damaging Azerbaijan’s Reputation Over Prisoners

A lawmaker from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ruling party said Armenia should avoid discussing Armenian prisoners held in Baku in ways that could damage Azerbaijan’s international reputation, arguing that a calmer approach would improve efforts to bring them home.

The remarks drew a sharp response from former Armenian lawmaker Naira Zohrabyan.

“What remarkable sensitivity toward cannibals. I haven’t noticed such tenderness toward her own compatriots,” Zohrabyan told Hraparak.

Maria Karapetyan made the comments Thursday during an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, where lawmakers were considering her nomination as the committee’s deputy chair.

Strong Armenia MP Suzanna Avetisyan asked Karapetyan what she had done as a member of parliament to help secure the release of Armenians imprisoned in Azerbaijan.

Karapetyan said the captives had been raised at every relevant international meeting.

“There was not a single international meeting during the previous period where we did not raise the urgency of securing the return of the captives held in Baku,” she said.

But Karapetyan said those conversations should be handled carefully.

“Our goal is to conduct those discussions in as calm a tone as possible, in a way that will help bring these people home, rather than raise the issue in a way that creates the impression that we are trying to damage Azerbaijan’s reputation,” she said.

Avetisyan also questioned Karapetyan about a recent appeal from Veronica Zonabend, the wife of Ruben Vardanyan, who is imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Zonabend asked National Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan to take her with him if he travels to Baku, saying she wants to see her husband.

Karapetyan opposed focusing on visits, saying Armenia should instead continue pressing for the prisoners’ release.

“We should not be trying to normalize the situation or arrange visits,” she said. “It is better to maintain the position that we demand their swift return.”

She warned that requesting smaller concessions could allow Azerbaijan to grant them and present those steps as significant progress while the prisoners remain in custody.

“We need to focus on bringing these people home,” Karapetyan said.

The committee later elected her deputy chair in a 4-3 vote.

Speaking with The Armenian Report after the meeting, Zohrabyan accused Karapetyan of showing more concern for Azerbaijan’s image than for Armenians imprisoned there.

She pointed to Karapetyan’s past participation in a Novruz celebration involving Azerbaijanis and urged the public to consider that appearance alongside her latest comments.

“I would advise people to once again watch that woman’s extremely emotional dance during Azerbaijan’s Novruz celebrations and listen to her congratulations on the occasion of Novruz,” Zohrabyan said. “That should be considered alongside her current concern about Azerbaijan’s reputation, and I think there will be no questions left after that.”

Zohrabyan argued that Azerbaijan itself has shown little concern about criticism from European institutions and human rights organizations.

“Azerbaijan does not care about its reputation,” she said.

She recalled remarks she said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made about the Council of Europe, arguing that Baku has repeatedly dismissed international criticism while Armenian officials are now worried about how Azerbaijan is perceived abroad.

“We have now fallen to the point where a member of Armenia’s National Assembly is concerned about a country such as Azerbaijan,” Zohrabyan said.

She contrasted Karapetyan’s approach with the language Azerbaijani authorities have used against former political and military leaders of Artsakh imprisoned in Baku, who have been portrayed by Azerbaijan as separatists and criminals.

Zohrabyan also placed responsibility on Armenian voters who backed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party.

“Those who voted for Civil Contract are now effectively signing their names under statements like these: that we should speak calmly about the captives so that we do not somehow damage Baku’s reputation,” she said.

Zohrabyan said she had personally heard Aliyev dismiss the importance of international institutions during an appearance in Strasbourg.

“Meanwhile, in Strasbourg, in my presence, Ilham Aliyev declared that he did not care about international institutions and had no intention of abandoning his agenda,” she said.

Asked about the contrast between Civil Contract lawmakers’ stated commitment to human rights and their approach toward Azerbaijan, Zohrabyan said Baku itself has begun using developments inside Armenia to push back against accusations that Azerbaijan is authoritarian.

She cited Azerbaijani references to the detention of former Armenian lawmaker Aregnaz Manukyan. According to Zohrabyan, Azerbaijani authorities have contrasted Manukyan’s treatment with what they claim are regular opportunities for Armenians imprisoned in Azerbaijan to communicate with their families.

“So which one of us is more authoritarian?” Zohrabyan said.

She said she was no longer surprised by the government’s approach and instead criticized opposition lawmakers for continuing to participate in parliamentary exchanges that, in her view, legitimize such positions.

Asked about suspicions voiced by some government critics that Civil Contract lawmakers taking conciliatory positions toward Azerbaijan could be acting under Baku’s influence, Zohrabyan rejected the need for such an explanation.

“They are not poorly financed in Armenia either,” she said. “I think these people simply think this way; this is who they are. They have always thought this way.”

Zohrabyan linked those views to the civil society backgrounds of some ruling-party figures and their involvement in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace-building programs before entering government.

She stressed that she does not oppose peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and said the two countries ultimately have to find a way to coexist.

“We cannot pick Armenia up and move it out of the region, and Azerbaijan cannot do that either,” Zohrabyan said.

But she said peace cannot be separated from the rhetoric and policies coming from Baku.

“When officials at the highest levels in Azerbaijan claim that Armenia is a terrorist state and that everything must be done to erase the name ‘Armenia’ from the region, I find it difficult to understand that kind of peace,” she said.

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